China has appointed a senior Navy admiral as the new defense minister, two months after Beijing abruptly removed the previous appointee without explanation.
The Admiral. Dong jun, who recently served as the Supreme Commander of the Chinese navy, was appointed head of the defense ministry through a presidential decree signed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday, according to the country's official Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua said the decree was issued in accordance with personnel changes approved by the Standing Committee of the Chinese legislature on Friday.
The appointment of a new defense minister comes just days after Washington and top military officers held their first official talks in 16 months in Beijing.
The Chinese defense minister largely deals with military diplomacy and does not assume command responsibilities over combat operations. The post has been left vacant since late October when Beijing removed the general. Li Shangfu only seven months after taking the job, the second time in three months that Xi had dropped a minister he had chosen for his cabinet for his third term.
Li's dismissal, which followed a two-month absence from the public sphere, recalled the fate of Chen Gang, China's former foreign minister, who was replaced in July after disappearing a month earlier.
The sudden and unexplained changes in two high-profile ministerial posts fueled speculation about the fate of Li and Chen, and prompted Western officials to raise concerns about China's increasingly opaque governance under Xi.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the authorities took Lee away for questioning in September. The purge would make Li the third current member of the Central Military Commission - which leads the armed forces - to be removed by Xi.
It has been almost six years since the Communist Party opened graft investigations against two top generals that pushed one of them to death by suicide and sent the other to life imprisonment.
Li's removal, along with other unusual personnel changes in top military and defense circles in 2023, sparked speculation of a high-level anti-corruption sweep targeting China's defense establishment.
China appointed a new commander of its strategic missile force in late July, ousting the incumbent after an unusually short stint in a key role. In September, the chairman of the PLA military court was removed from his post just eight months after the start of work.
This week, Beijing ousted three top defense industry executives from a government advisory body, Xinhua reported, an unusual move that sparked speculation that these men could face disciplinary investigations.
Since taking power in late 2012, Xi has used corruption investigations to assert control over the politically influential people's Liberation Army and push through a far-reaching modernization program. The purge paved the way for Xi to promote officers whom military affairs specialists consider more professional and politically reliable.
